NEW HAVEN — If it's possible for a college football season to include a five-week preamble, then that's the case with the Yale Bulldogs.

The past is is simply not as important as what's ahead.

Winning four of their first five, amid a scoring outburst not seen in New Haven since the start of Grover Cleveland's second administration in 1892, has been a national eye-opener. But the Bulldogs' public face remains placid, stoic, largely unimpressed.

Coach Tony Reno's daily sermon about "the process" is the reason. His team has paid full-blown retail buying into it. So, Saturday's game at Yale Bowl against Penn, the start of the five-game Ivy League stretch that carries the Bulldogs to Harvard on Nov. 22, was simply the next step.

"The challenge this week was to continue to keep growing, stay in the process," Reno repeated Saturday. "The most important thing was to stay with what we were doing and do it well. We want to stay within ourselves, play each play and maintain the concentration level until the end."

Chandler Rich

Courtesy of Steve Musco / Yale University

Yale tailback Chandler Rich runs for a touchdown after catching a pass.

Yale's Precision Marching Offense, diverse, dynamic and lethal, racked up another 605 yards and 28 first downs to rout Penn 43-21 at Yale Bowl. It's the most points Yale has scored against Penn since a 44-22 victory in 1967.

"It's a lot of fun to be on an offense that's clicking," said senior receiver Grant Wallace.

Yale came into the game averaging 46 points and a nation-leading 601 yards per game.

Once again, the Elis (5-1, 2-1) were led by quarterback Morgan Roberts, who completed 26 of 29 passes for 346 yards and four touchdowns. Roberts came in having completed 69.6 percent of his passes, just one of the five program single-season records he is threatening this season.

His accuracy Saturday — 89.7 percent — is considered the greatest in Yale's history for a quarterback with at least 25 attempts. Roberts has 17 touchdown passes and just five interceptions in 213 attempts this season.

Wallace led the Bulldogs with 10 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns, one from 18 yards in the first quarter, the other from 10 yards in the third.

And captain Deon Randall added seven catches for 78 yards, breaking Ralph Plumb's record for career receptions (195), set from 2001-04. The historic catch was relatively benign, a 9-yarder to midfield midway through the third quarter. He now has 196.

"It's an awesome accomplishment, one I am very happy about, but I am more thrilled with the win," said Randall, who carried the record-setting football into the postgame press conference.

One of Randall's other catches was a 6-yard touchdown pass from Roberts with 12:37 to play in the first half. That increased Yale's lead to 22-7.

Tyler Varga, author this season of Yale's only two five-touchdown games at Yale Bowl since 1931, gained another 140 yards on 23 carries with two more rushing scores. His 23-yard touchdown opened Yale's scoring in the first quarter. The other, a 5-yarder in the third quarter, made it 36-14.

Seven Bulldogs had at least three carries and six different players had receptions.

The ultimate goal, of course, is Yale's first league championship since 2006. If that happens, then — and only then — will everybody crack a smile because the story will have a happy ending. Right now, in Reno's mind, all the Bulldogs have done is tie last season's win total.

It's hardly probable that winless Columbia will be able to slow down Yale next week. The Lions lost their 17th straight Saturday to Darmouth. The first 16 were by an average of 32 points.

The is Al Bagnoli's final season as coach of the Quakers. The former Central player, second only to Yale's Carm Cozza with 111 Ivy wins in 23 seasons, has had his problems. The Quakers are 1-5 for the first time since 1991. Penn has beaten only Columbia this season, and that was last week after starting its season with four straight losses.

Yale presented Bagnoli, an East Haven native, with a gift during a pregame ceremony. And then it got quickly to business.

After the Quakers were stopped on their first possession, Varga got the Bulldogs moving with a 23-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion pass to Matt Oplinger made it 8-0 with 10:27 to play in the first quarter.

It got better. Yale's Charles Cook blocked Penn's field goal attempt on the next drive and Oplinger returned it 48 yards to Penn's 49. Four plays later, Roberts hit Wallace in stride in the end zone from the 18. With 6:06 to play in the first, Yale had a 15-0 lead.

"They tried a lot of different coverages on me, but I just trusted my quarterback," Wallace said.

But the efficiency of Yale's offense has been almost mandatory to this point because its defense continues, at times, to be prone to punctures. And Penn quarterback Alek Torgersen (23 of 41, 286 yards) did his best to keep the Quakers within reach, throwing TD passes of 32 and 42 yards to senior Conner Scott in the second quarter and another of 48 yards to Spencer Kulscar in the fourth.

Yale's defense did suffer a huge and scary loss late in the second half when sophomore corner Spencer Rymiszewski had to be taken off the field on a stretcher with a concussion.

"The report I received from the doctor after the game was that Spencer was testing well from the hospital," Reno said.